Beyond the Known
by riverflowertheimmortalwolf
Summary: Someone told us to not cross the border. We did. And now, the creature is out there to get us. Rated T for violence.
1. Chapter 1

**Warning: This story has a bad ending.**

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"Night!" a reddish wolf called to me.

I raised my head, wolf eyes blinking sleepily. "Berry? Why are you calling me?"

The young wolf bounced around me. "We could now go out of camp! For the first time!"

"Really?" My ebony ears shot up. "That's great! Is Moss coming?"

"Yes!" Berry nodded. "Come on!" He nudged me out of the den, talking about how we could explore every bit of our territory. A female wolf with a blue-tinged pelt bounded towards us.

"I'm here!" she cried.

An adult wolf stopped by us. "Make sure you don't stray off the borders, young ones," he rumbled. "Stay inside, and you'll be safe. here are dangers out there." We all nodded our heads furiously. Excitedly, we rushed out of the entrance.

"Come on, let's go!" Berry urged us on. "Every pup gets to explore!"

"Stop right there!" a voice rang out. "You need an adult wolf with you!" A large female gray wolf emerged from a bush, scowling. We dipped our heads guiltily, and our tails stopped wagging.

"We're sorry, Bramble," Moss apologized, her tail lowering. We did not enjoy our first time out, since Bramble was checking our every move. She barked at us for everything.

"Watch where you put your paws!"

"Don't sniff that plant!"

"Lower your voices. You'll scare away the prey!"

"We are _not_ looking over there. That's the border; you shouldn't be curious!"

Our exciting trip quickly became a boring, irritable one.

"Bramble's too bossy," Moss whispered to me. Bramble whipped around and glared at us. "What did you say?"

"Er, Moss said that you are extremely _protective_ of us," Berry jumped in.

Bramble's scowl stretched further down her muzzle. "What a strange thing to say about me," she growled. Then she turned her head and started forwards again.

After a while, when Bramble was inspecting a mushroom, Berry leaned down to us. "I have a plan to get rid of Bramble." We stood with our heads together, making a plan.

When Bramble turned her head to us, we straightened. Good thing she didn't notice what we were doing.

"Bear!" Berry suddenly shouted. He looked at Bramble. "Bear! I smell it! Its over there!"

'Where?" Bramble's fur raised in alarm. "We need to find the bear and inform this to the pack!"

"Follow me!" Berry tore away through the underbrush. Bramble hesitated.

"You stay here," she ordered us. Then she pelted away after Berry. We waited for a while. Then we saw Berry come back to us, chuckling. "Well, I managed to lead Bramble in the wrong direction. Guess where I led her into?"

"Where?" Moss and I chorused.

"Brambles!" Berry answered, then we burst out laughing.

"Bramble was led into brambles!" I giggled. "What a coincidence!"

"That suits her name!" Moss pounded the ground with a paw, still laughing.

"Okay, okay, let's explore the territory ourselves," I calmed them. We skipped along the trees, sniffing at every thing we passed. We were joyous, our tails wagging uncontrollably.

What we didn't know, was that wouldn't last long.

We had crossed the border without knowing, and there was something watching us.

With hunger.


	2. Chapter 2

There we were. Berry, Moss, and I. We were exploring what we thought was our territory. Instead, we had crossed the border. Now, that creature, was watching us.

"Look at this flower!" Moss waved us over. We all stared in wonder at the flower. It was so different, so different than the ones you would find in camp. This one was rose-colored, had orange tinges at the end of the petals, and had white swirls.

"So pretty," I breathed. "What else could we find?" Berry shrugged.

Then, out of nowhere, I spotted a glimpse of white. I perked up my ears, curious. "What was that?"

Moss whimpered. "I have a bad feeling about this." We would always believe her if she said that, because they always turned out true. I touched her nose reassuringly.

"I saw something white move," I told the young wolf. Berry lifted his lips and growled to whatever was out there.

I caught another glimpse of the white pelt. Of _something_. I pressed up against Moss, who was shivering.

"It's okay," I murmured to her. But for some reason, I knew it wasn't going to be okay. A gust of cold wind ruffled our fur, making the place feel even more eerie. Suddenly the place that had once looked beautiful now looked scary.

I stared straight ahead. I knew what we did. "We crossed the border, didn't we?"

"We have to go back," Moss swallowed, an edge of nervousness in her voice. "Berry, Night, we have to go."

"Okay," Berry backed away, not turning his back to the forest as we walked.

"We have to run," Moss said in a trance-like voice. "We have to run. Now."

"Is something really that dangerous to be out here?" Berry asked. Then, something glided out of the shadows like a ghost. It was a huge wolf, three times as tall as I was. It had eyes that were completely ice-blue. But what was creepy, was that it had no pupils. It looked dead, but not. The white wolf was completely silent, leaving no pawprints behind. Even when it walked, you could not hear any dead leaves crunching or any breathing sounds.

It continued walking towards us calmly in that weirdly silencing way.

"We have to run," Moss whispered, a note of panic edging into her quiet voice. "It's coming for us."

"What do you mean by coming..." Berry trailed off as the icy gaze of the creature turned on him.

"Berry," I cried to him. "It's heading for you!" But Berry only stood there, transfixed by the eyes. I tugged at his tail, but he still was frozen to the ground, staring.

The white wolf stopped in front of Berry. Moss and I held our breaths.

Then with one swift movement, the creature snatched Berry up into its jaws. Berry came to his senses, and started howling, struggling in vain.

But it was too late.

The monster started smashing him down onto the ground violently, over and over. We stared in horror, as finally, Berry's legs stopped kicking. The broken body hung lifelessly from the wolf's jaws.

The wolf crunched down, starting to chew.

We cringed, and looked at each other. Moss and I had the same plan. We started to run, run like never before. We ran for our lives. We looked back, to see that the beast was literally breathing down my back. _That's impossible!_ I thought wildly. _The wolf was just over there!_

The creature snagged a claw onto my tail. I was jerked back. Moss stopped to help me, bravely biting onto the creature's paw. The paw let go of me, and I turned around to urge Moss on, and to thank her.

She wasn't there anymore. I looked up to see that the creature had tossed up Moss in the air. She flailed her paws wildly, and the monster caught her in its jaws, biting down. Moss screamed.

"Moss!" I cried out, watching in horror as the creature swallowed Moss whole. I heaved, bile rising to my throat, but I turned around and ran on, Berry's and Moss's deaths still fresh in my mind.

Then I tripped over a rock. I fell flat on my muzzle. I turned around, whimpering, to see that the beast had already bent over me, opening its jaws to show bloodstained teeth.

I shut my eyes, awaiting my death...

A gray blur flew out of nowhere, thumping onto the beast's flank.

"Don't you touch Night, mangepelt!" Bramble roared as she bit down, grinding her teeth together. Hope swelled from me. Bramble was as prickly as she could get, but she would give her life to defend me.

The white wolf didn't scream. It didn't roar. It didn't hiss.

It just casually reached over, opening its mouth and snapping it over Bramble. Bramble screeched in pain and anger, thrashing.

"Night! Warn the pack," she rasped.

"B-but..." I felt despair.

"Now!" Bramble barked, and yelped as the monster bit down more. I backed away, and ran, Bramble's last screams echoing in my ears. I flattened my ebony ears, trying to block them out.

I ran until my lungs burned and my legs collapsed underneath me. I smelled the familiar scents of camp. I shakily stood up. _Just a little more...I'm almost there..._

A giant white paw slammed into my ribs. The breath was knocked out of me. I was sure it had cracked a couple ribs. I tried to stand up, but strong teeth clamped over my leg like a trap. I yelped as the teeth sank into bone. Then I felt myself being dragged. Dragged away from home. I was so close, but yet I hadn't made it! I tried to fight, raising my head to howl to alert my pack.

Before that happened, a paw slammed my head against a tree, causing me to be dazed and dizzy with pain. I couldn't howl for my pack. I continued being dragged, bumped against rocks. The monster was taking me away, and soon enough I knew that it had crossed the border.

The monster stopped dragging me. It let go of me, though I could barely move, with all the pains shooting up my body. The white wolf opened its jaws. I didn't care about the pain anymore. I was already drifting away. I closed my heavy eyelids, awaiting my fate. _I'm sorry, Bramble. I couldn't warn the pack. I failed._

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 **I don't know why I wanted to write such a violent and sad story. I just felt like it. So there you have it!**

 **Maybe perhaps a bit too gory...**


End file.
